MIDDLE EAST: Time of Trouble

Inviting the heads of Israel's Christian
churches and communities to a New Year's tea, sad-faced old President
Itzhak ben-Zvi of Israel begged his guests to "pray for the peace of
Jerusalem." The peace of Jerusalemand the Middle East was standing
in the need of prayer last week.

The Jordan-held sector of the Holy City still lay in shock after riots
in which at least 56 Arabs died protesting the ill-timed British
proposal that their country join the new Baghdad pact for a Middle East
anti-Communist front. The U.N.'s patient mediator, Canada's Major
General E.L.M. Burns, announced that both the Israelis...